<\/p>\n
Asia’s most successful team, Japan, are twice behind and drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in their Group F opener.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Posted on June 14, 2026<\/span>June 14, 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Japan equalized in the 88th minute when they came back twice to salvage a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in front of 69,285 in Texas to open their World Cup campaigns.<\/p>\n On Sunday, the match erupted in the second half, ending in the first period.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk scored with a superb header, only for Keita Nakamura to equalize quickly and winger Chrysencio Summerville curled a delicious curling strike into the bottom corner just after the hour mark.<\/p>\n It looked like the Dutch would hold on, but Japan equalized with Crystal Palace midfielder Daichi Kamada scoring from a rebound.<\/p>\n Sweden face Tunisia in a competitive Group F later on Sunday.<\/p>\n Japan and the Netherlands are in North America without key players due to injury, but on paper it was one of the more attractive matches of the group stage.<\/p>\n Both were touted as dark horses capable of going far in the tournament, with the Dutch finishing as runners-up three times and Japan never progressing beyond the round of 16.<\/p>\n The Netherlands started the game confidently and almost took the lead after three minutes when Daniel Mullen was allowed to turn in the box before forcing Tsion Suzuki into a smart save.<\/p>\n The impressive, air-conditioned arena is usually home to the Dallas Cowboys, and during a hydration break, a giant screen hanging over the field showed the team’s NFL cheerleaders performing one of their acts.<\/p>\n The stoppage looked to have helped Ronald Koeman’s side, and Roma forward Mullen again headed Suzuki’s header from a corner before Kody Gakpo fired wildly over the bar.<\/p>\n The Japanese fans, who almost never stopped singing and outnumbered the Dutch, fell silent for a while.<\/p>\n The first real chance for Hajime Moriasu’s side came minutes before the break when a cross eluded the defending Somerville but Nakamura made a low effort.<\/p>\n The Dutch looked most threatening in the air, so it was no surprise when Liverpool talisman van Dijk rose to head into the bottom corner from club-mate Ryan Gravenberch’s pinpoint cross in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n The lead lasted just six minutes when Nakamura twisted and fired a low shot past goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, the ball taking a narrow deflection off Jan Paul van Hecke.<\/p>\n In a frantic period of play, the Dutch took the lead once again in the 64th minute when West Ham’s Summerville beat his man on the right and curled a left-footed effort into Suzuki’s bottom-right corner.<\/p>\n Both teams made changes and had chances to score again before Kamada chaotically leveled from a corner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asia’s most successful team, Japan, are twice behind and drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in their Group F opener. Posted on June 14, 2026June 14, 2026 Japan equalized in the 88th minute when they came back twice to salvage a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in front of 69,285 in Texas to open their World …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[256,257,258,259,70,255,180,62,260,182],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-asia-pacific","tag-europe","tag-japan","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-usa-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended stories <\/h2>\n